


Sabo and Koala after Ace's death

by waterproof1993



Category: One Piece
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2019-10-27 02:53:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17758397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterproof1993/pseuds/waterproof1993
Summary: This is my own interpretation of what happened between Sabo and Koala after Ace died and how that brought them together as a couple. Saboala full on. I love them!





	1. If you want me

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, this is the first chapter of a little series I'm writing. If you're interested in reading more let me know.  
> Thank you in advance for everyone who reads this and also if you're kind enough to leave a comment, it would actually really encourage me to write more.  
> Thank you.

I remember holding him for so many nights now. He fell asleep every time with tears in his eyes. It was as if a cloud had installed over his head and would never go away. At first, he screamed. The first day he knew, the day he remembered, he didn’t want to see anybody. He locked himself in his room and, from time to time, you could hear his screams. His pain was like a thousand needles piercing my heart. My very soul ached at the thought of him being in so much pain. There must be something I can do, I said to myself. There wasn’t.  
  
The day after, he didn’t scream. But the silence, although calmer, was even more painful.  
  
It was the third day, at almost midnight, that I had the courage to enter his room and confront him. He had been in silence all day, like the day before, not crying, not screaming, just quiet. He had to eat at least. And he wasn’t going to do it unless someone told him to. I knocked on his door. No answer. I entered anyway. I saw him then, he was sitting on the floor, his back next to the bed. With his arms around his knees. He was wet from top to bottom, part from his tears and part from his sweat. It was hot. Just by the look on his face, I could tell he was very sick. However, what scared me the most was his eyes. The way he looked at me when I entered the room. It was as if he was not seeing me. They looked as if they had no life in them.  
  
I approached him carefully, slowly, trying not to startle him in any way. I put my hand on his forehead to see if he had a fever although I could tell he had one just by looking at him. He was burning. I then realized he was breathing heavily. I caressed his face trying to soothe him.  
  
“Sabo” I whispered to him, almost in tears.  
  
And then I felt his hand gripping tight on my arm. He was so strong he was hurting me, but I didn’t move. He stayed like this for a few seconds when abruptly he began to cry. Everything he had locked in himself the last three days came out like a rainstorm. I hold him like a baby. I petted his head and I told him everything was going to be okay.  
He left my shirt soaked with tears. At one point, I managed to put him on the bed. We laid there for hours and eventually he stopped crying. We stayed there though, not speaking, not looking, just holding each other.  
  
In the morning, I left the room while he was still sleeping. I went to make some breakfast for both of us. When I came back, he was in the exact same position he had when I left, but this time I took the time to gaze at his face. He had the looks of an angel. And his expression was so peaceful I felt bad I had to wake him. I waited for five minutes, not able to take my eyes off of him, until I forced myself to call him. He really needed to eat.  
  
I gently caressed his head running my fingers through his golden hair, and whispered in his ear “Wake up Sabo”. I even dared to kiss him on his forehead. He opened his eyes sluggishly, a little bit disoriented he looked at me as if not understanding what I was doing there. His eyes were red and sore from all the crying. It looked as if he was going to say something but thought it better and stayed quiet. I had not heard his voice in almost four days now. Except from the sobbing and screaming.  
  
“I brought you breakfast.” I said giving him the tray I had left on the table. He looked at it with no intention of eating one bit.  
“Look Sabo, I cannot possibly understand what you are going through right now, but we all have suffered in our own way. And we have all gotten over it. You can do it as well. But you need to eat, you won’t help yourself in any way if you starve yourself to death, so please stop being stupid and just eat something.”  
No reaction whatsoever.  
“Sabo, at least help me understand, from what you said three days ago when you read about Ace’s death on the newspaper, Ace is your brother right?” He looked at me with anger in his eyes, maybe it wasn’t the best way to help him by reminding him of all this. But I had to try everything I could. “And just before you started screaming you said one name. Do you remember?”  
  
Nothing  
  
“You said Luffy” He looked at me. “Everyone is saying Mugiwara no Luffy was Ace’s brother. Does that mean that Luffy is your brother as well?”  
  
“Luffy” He said. “Luffy’s my… little brother” He, then, grabbed a spoon and started eating the food I brought him. I couldn’t help sighing in relief. He ate slowly first, one spoon at a time. But the more he ate the more he realized how hungry he was and he ended up eating with both hands at super speed pace and like an animal. That’s more like the normal Sabo, I thought smiling.  
  
After a while he started telling me all about him, Ace and Luffy. Where they lived, how they met, how they became brothers. At times he smiled, at times he felt silent and sadness would pick through his eyes, at times he was angry. How could he have forgotten all of this? What kind of person that made him? Why had he not been able to save his brother?  
  
“It is all my fault.” Said Sabo in the end.  
“What? How can it be your fault?” I said to him.  
“If I hadn’t lost my memories, if I had been there I would have saved him.”  
“Do you really think you could have made a difference? Sabo, you cannot change what’s in the past. What would have happened? You will never know, so it’s best to look forward, and leave the past behind. And besides, Luffy is still alive somewhere right?”  
“Right. I want to see him.” He said with a glimpse of hope in his eyes.  
“I’m sure you will. Someday. Right now he must be hiding in some place recovering from all his wounds. But he will be okay.”  
  
I got up, seeing him better I decided I could leave him for a while, although I wanted to stay with him for as long as I could, but maybe he needed some private time now to sort all of his thoughts out. So I took the tray and said goodbye to Sabo. I asked him if he wanted to have lunch with us. He answered he wasn’t ready to meet everyone yet. I respected his decision on the condition that I’d still give him something to eat. He laughed and agreed.  
  
At midday as I promised him I brought him lunch. I checked on his fever and I was relieved to perceive that it was going down. He had showered and his face looked so much better. However, there was still a look of sadness in his eyes and that would only go away with time.  
  
As I was going to leave again he asked to my surprise.  
“Will you stay with me tonight as well?”  
  
So he remembered. I thought from the look in his eyes this morning that he had forgotten. I thought the fever was so high yesterday that he had been dizzy all the time and couldn’t remember a thing. I was so happy to realize I was wrong.  
“If you want me.” I answered.  
“I do” was all he said.   
And I spend all afternoon smiling like a fool waiting for the night to come like a child waits for Christmas.


	2. Feel this way

It became a routine. Each night I would go to Sabo’s room without anyone noticing and we would lie there, cuddling. We didn’t talk much, it was kind of awkward. We had always been such good friends, but this meant more, and we knew it. We were too scared to put it into words. So we just showed how we felt by our actions. The truth was that Sabo’s pain had got me to realize how much I wanted him to be ok, how much I wanted him to be happy, and how much I wanted him to be by my side. I know it’s selfish to put it that way, but Sabo’s pain was what really brought us together.It became a routine. Each night I would go to Sabo’s room without anyone noticing and we would lie there, cuddling. We didn’t talk much, it was kind of awkward. We had always been such good friends, but this meant more, and we knew it. We were too scared to put it into words. So we just showed how we felt by our actions. The truth was that Sabo’s pain had got me to realize how much I wanted him to be ok, how much I wanted him to be happy, and how much I wanted him to be by my side. I know it’s selfish to put it that way, but Sabo’s pain was what really brought us together.  
  
It was one dark night with no moon in the sky.  
  
I was lying beside him as usual, my arms folded in front of me trying not to touch his chest. His left arm under my head like a pillow and his right arm around me pulling me closer, making me impossible not to touch him. We were both closing our eyes ready to sleep at any time.  
  
After a while, I heard Sabo start to snore very softly. I had already become accustomed to this noise. I even learned to like it. I opened my eyes to see him sleeping. His face was kind of funny with his mouth opened. It made me smile. But again, his peacefulness amazed me. I fixed my eyes on the scar on his face. It was a horrible scar. He had been very lucky not to lose that eye. It’s pretty common to have scars being in the Revolutionary Army as we are. But his was a little bit different. He hadn’t got the scar fighting. He didn’t like talking about it, he thought of the scar as something to be ashamed of.  
  
Anyway, I freed my hand from the prison of both our bodies and raised it up to touch his scar. I don’t know why I did it. I just felt like it. I caressed it in the softest way possible trying not to wake him. But it was useless. He moved, startled, and opened his eyes. We stared at each other for a few moments. I did not take away my hand. Actually, he grabbed it with one of his and then he lowered his head until our lips touched. Briefly. Delicately.  
  
I had never been kissed before.  
  
Sabo lifted his head again and looked at me. Maybe he was trying to find out my feelings about it. Maybe he just looked at me to reassure that the feelings were mutual. Or maybe he was just scared at my reaction. But, in any case, what he saw in my face could not be very rejecting, because he took my lips again, more passionately and fiercely this time. Holding me very tightly in his arms. Putting his hands under my shirt tracing every inch of my back, not daring to go any further. I responded locking my hands in his head, tightening my fingers into his blonde hair. Pulling him closer to me. Not letting him go. We weren’t even stopping to breathe. His tongue invaded my mouth as a warm feeling started running over my body. Our lips were pulling each other until they got swollen.  
  
I had never felt like this.  
  
At last we let go, longing and panting for air. We looked at each other smiling and we started laughing. Giggling. I couldn’t believe we had just kissed that way. It was weird in some ways. But It felt good. Really good.  
  
“Oh Koala” he said, still giggling. “I wanted to do this for so long… I thought you didn’t feel this way”.  
  
It was true. My behavior towards him before knowing about Ace’s death was a bit, how could I say it, irritating. I was always yelling at him. His refined manners put me on my nerves, his personality made me mad in so many ways. And I didn’t bother to hide it from him. We were always fighting each other, yelling at each other, arguing... But it was just something we had always did. It was our way to show we cared for each other. But just as friends, as that is what we had always been. Until now.  
  
“I didn’t know I felt this way until last week. When you… When I saw you…” I couldn’t put it into words. His pain, his screams, his cries…  
“It’s ok…” He said. “I’m glad”.  
  
I looked at him quizzically. Glad? For what?  
  
He answered me. “I’m glad you feel this way too.”  
  
I laid my head on his chest and put my arm about him. I felt him holding me tight. We both fell asleep peacefully.  
  



	3. Like a butterfly

In the morning, I woke up and saw Sabo staring at me with amusement on his face. He was trying to hold a laugh. “What?”  
“You were so funny tonight” I didn’t like where this was going. What did I do that was so funny? I waited for him to explain.  
“You were mumbling incoherent things. Afterwards you said something like ‘go to hell’ and then you started snoring so loud with your mouth wide open, you looked like a monster hahahahahah” he started laughing so much. I was getting really angry.  
“You even had slobber dripping all over your face hahahahhaha it was hilarious”  
  
I couldn’t stand it anymore, I threw myself over him and started hitting him, “You wanna know what you look like when you sleep? Huh? You look like a stupid ogre who’s about to get beaten.”  
He then started laughing even more trying in vain to stop my punches.  
“If you don’t like how I sleep then I won’t sleep with you anymore, you moron!”  
  
Not even seeing how, suddenly I was under him, my hands on either side of my face immobilized by his. He was pinning me onto the bed. I tried to get him off me but it was useless. He was so damn strong, I made a promise to myself to train even harder so this things wouldn’t happen to me anymore.  
“I said you looked like a monster” He was inches away from my mouth. “I didn’t say I didn’t like it” And then that small space between us disappeared as he reached out to kiss my lips.  
I pushed him away and rejoiced at his surprise look.  
“Stupid” I called him. I caught him unaware and pinned him down on the bed as I put myself over him. Who was the boss now huh?  
“I also like your stupid ogre face” and then it was me initiating the kiss. And this time no one pushed the other away. He tangled his hands on my hair not letting me go. It was still weird to think I was kissing Sabo, and we sure as hell didn’t know what we were doing. Our lips explored the others as if founding new land to discover. But it felt good. It was intimate. It made me feel closer to him than anything we could have said to eachother.  
  
I was still on top of him, about to get off the bed to face a new day of work when he stopped me.  
“Wait” he said. He raised himself and we were both sitting on the bed, me on top of him. “I just want to…” he paused and breathed heavily. “…stay like this for a while” and he reached forward so our foreheads collided. I closed my eyes. Just feeling.  
“How much about us do the crew know?” He asked after a while.  
“They don’t know anything as far as I know. I’ve been careful not to be seen when I come to your bedroom at night. And when they see me in the morning they just think I’m taking care of you since you’re sick. They’re worried about you too, you know?.”  
“So they don’t know you come here to sleep?” He asked again, ignoring my attempt to bring his health into consideration.  
“I don’t think so, no” I said.  
He exhaled noisily. “Well, I think that’s for the better. I don’t want them to start teasing us, it would be… awkward.”  
“Yeah, I agree” I said. “It’s better to keep it a secret, at least until we figure out what’s going on between us. And If something goes wrong it would be just too troublesome to explain to our crewmates, so it’s better if they don’t know anything from the beginning.”  
  
I saw him frown a little at what I just said but he hid it quickly and said “yes”.  
“Well then, I’ll go out first and say you’re feeling better and then you can come out, ok?” I said finally breaking contact with him and getting off the bed. I started to change my clothes while he jumped out of bed and started changing as well. I was about to open the door when he stopped me. His body and the door, a prison impossible to escape.  
“Before you leave…” And he kissed me again, this time tenderly, sweetly, like a butterfly. And just like that I was out of the room.


End file.
